JSI’s USAID Advancing Nutrition Project Launches Nutrition & COVID-19 Materials with Access to Graphics
April 30th, 2020 | news
Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counseling in the time of COVID-19 is more than ever a critical nutrition intervention for the protection and support of pregnant women, caregivers, and young children. WHO and UNICEF advise caregivers and families who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to continue recommended IYCF practices while taking all necessary hygiene precautions.
USAID Advancing Nutrition and UNICEF, with the support of the Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group represented by Save the Children and Safely Fed Canada, have developed a counseling package, Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations when COVID-19 is Suspected or Confirmed. The graphics development process was led by Peggy Koniz-Booher, JSI’s Senior Nutrition/SBCC Advisor, with a team of talented artists based in the Dominican Republic and Rwanda. The materials, which reflect the current WHO and UNICEF guidance (March 2020) on IYCF in the context of COVID-19, were reviewed by global experts and field-tested with end-users in multiple settings. The package includes 10 Counseling Cards and a Recommended Practices Booklet. It features user-friendly graphics that can be used with low-literacy communities and/or translated and adapted for different contexts.
The IYCF and COVID-19 Package builds on the UNICEF generic C-IYCF Counselling Package being used in more than 70 countries for counseling and training to promote improved behaviors for maternal and child nutrition. Many of the images were adapted from the IYCF Image Bank launched by UNICEF and JSI through the JSI-led SPRING project in 2017. The Image Bank is a collection of over 700 images highlighting recommended IYCF practices found in multiple adaptations of the C-IYCF Package.
To learn about options for adapting existing images and graphic materials, or to create your own materials for your IYCF and COVID-19 program needs, please email info@advancingnutrition.org for access to the Adobe InDesign source files for the layout graphics and illustrations used in the counseling cards.
